Tag Archives: pets

An effort to cut down on the number of homeless pets in one Texas city has prompted officials to slap pet owners with a $75 sin tax to help deter their furry friends from breeding. Failure to register your pet’s new litter within 14 days “could result in fines and penalties,” states El Paso’s new animal ordinance.

City officials have also limited dogs and cats to 2 planned or unplanned pregnancies a year in an effort to prevent shelters from being overwhelmed. Professional breeders complain that the city’s crackdown on careless pet owners unfairly punishes their responsible businesses that provide in-demand pets to welcoming new homes.

El Paso Animal Services received $250,000 from the city council to step-up its enforcement efforts that will include monitoring newspapers and other media to ensure citizens selling puppies and kittens have registered their new litters and paid the sin tax for their pets’ intentional or unintentional ‘romantic encounters.’

The Town of Highbridge's revised ordinance would prohibit animal “vocalizing,” defined as “howling, yelping, barking, squawking, etc.” for five minutes with four or more vocalizations per minute, or for 20 minutes with two or more vocalizations per minute.

A small town in New Jersey is on the verge of legislating how long dogs are allowed to bark before their owners can be fined or jailed. The strict barking limits would also apply to barking dogs at pet stores, kennels and animal shelters, making for one heck of a difficult law to prosecute based solely on ‘hearsay.’

The Town of Highbridge’s current dog barking ordinance is “very vague,” says Mayor Mark Desire, so he and fellow town council members responded with a proposed ordinance that would limit dogs’ barking to 5 minutes or 20 minutes, based on the frequency of barks per minute.

Operators of pet stores, kennels and animal shelters will be held to the same rules if the proposed ordinance is adopted on Oct. 14. Failure to control mass barking among dogs confined to tight quarters will result in the same penalties applied to pet owners in the form of fines up to $5,000 or up to 90 days in jail.

It’s likely that nobody reading this enjoys excessive dog barking and has experienced an incidence of it that just make your blood pressure skyrocket. Do you think calling the police or animal control should be a last resort after all efforts to get your neighbor to control their dog’s excessive barking have been exhausted, or do you agree with the town council’s plan to attack the disturbances head-on with fines and possible imprisonment is the appropriate solution?

A family’s beloved dog is missing after their vehicle was involved in a serious car wreck. Maggie, a 4-year-old Cockapoo, fled the accident scene and her family desperately wants to bring her home, but city bureaucrats are complicating recovery efforts.

The Ladensack family told NBC News in Durham, N.C. that they have checked local dog shelters, posted notices on Craigslist and in locals newspapers to no avail. They also posted nearly 600 ‘missing’ posters in the local area which has landed them in trouble with local bureacrats.

According to the Durham Planning Department, the family’s ‘missing dog’ signs are in violation of city code that prohibits posting flyers on utility polls. If the signs are not removed immediately, officials said, the Ladensacks will be fined.

“They’re threatening to hurt us for trying to do the only thing it’s possible for us to do, to get her face out there so people know we loved her and missed her,” Trish Ladensack, Maggie’s owner, told NBC. “To me it seems cruel and rotten,” said Trish Ladensack.

Despite the family’s pleas for compassion from city officials, Planning Department Director Steve Medlin said the Ladensack’s had two options they could consider: Continue posting signs on utility polls and face a $500 a day fine or post them in the public right of way alongside political campaign signs.

Interestingly, the city considers ‘missing dog’ flyers “commercial speech” because they solicit the public. Posting them in the public right of way makes them “non-commercial” speech because the signs do not advertise a commercial service.

Make sense? Of course it doesn’t! We’re dealing with big government bureaucrats who read and write laws as they benefit themselves, not the constituents whose best interests they were elected to represent and protect.

Contact the Durham Planning Department if you believe the Ladensack family is being treated unfairly in its attempts to recover the family’s lost dog.

Treating pets like humans is what the radical animal 'rights' crowd does best.

Taking a few pages from the Obama playbook for giving people what they don’t want or need and making them feel like they’ll die without it, a California Democrat is pitching health care reform for pets. Animal ‘rights’ groups supporting the initiative say millions of cats and dogs are running-up billions of dollars in health care bills at veterinarians’ offices nationwide, and only 1 percent of their owners have health insurance.

California pet owners who already have insurance are complaining that their providers are corrupt and need the helping hand of big government to step-in and reform the greedy industry. Can you say, “Crisis!?!?”

Democratic state Assemblyman Dave Jones, who is running for state insurance commissioner in the November election, said some of the same practices being corrected by the recently enacted federal health care overhaul are used by pet insurance companies, including denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions.

Jones has introduced a bill that would make pet insurers post detailed information on their websites so consumers can see exactly what is covered and what is not. They could then compare options, just as if they were buying insurance for themselves in a post-health reform world.

Think this is crazy and doesn’t stand a chance of becoming law? Jones’ bill has already passed the state Assembly and a Senate insurance committee. The only thing preventing this absurdity from becoming a reality is an upcoming hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), the world’s most prominent radical animal ‘rights’ group, and the mainstream American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) claim to be working on behalf of pet owners to get the petcare legislation passed. Both groups lobbied for the removal of the provision in the petcare bill that would ban insurers from denying health care to pets with pre-existing conditions, citing concerns that it would drive-up costs for insurers and members.

Coincidentally, the ASPCA sells health care insurance plans for pets, so it stands to benefit from state lawmakers ‘encouraging’ pet owners to purchase petcare plans. And, the organization’s petcare website notes, “The ASPCA also benefits from every plan that’s purchased. That means, you’ll be making a difference in the lives of animals across the country by protecting your pet at home.”

The ASPCA receives “up to 10% of the purchase price” for every petcare plan purchased, so making sure the California petcare bill becomes law will be “making a difference” in its operating budget, too.

It comes as no surprise that big government bureaucrats in bankrupt California are applying their time and resources to fixing a problem that has little impact on the overall economic recovery of the state and its taxpaying citizens. The state’s current unemployment rate is at 12.3 percent, yet state and local lawmakers continue prefer to consume their efforts with issues that have no potential to put citizens back to work.

Banning toys in Happy Meals, promoting an “official” pot brownie recipe, prohibiting citizens from buying pets, a plastic bag ban, a soda tax, and restrictions on soft drink sales are just a few of the recent efforts made by California lawmakers that have absolutely no potential to help the state and its unemployed citizens recover from economic devastation.

It’s time to stop watching from the sidelines and start fighting big government on the front lines. Join the revolution today! The Nanny State Liberation Front wants you!

Pastor Prohibited from Praying to Jesus During N.C. House Daily Prayer
Winston-Salem Journal; July 11, 2010“[Rev. Ron] Baity is the president of Return America, a group that opposes ‘any governmental control over churches and pastors,’ and opposes the theory of evolution, according to its website. He also has been active in the tea-party movement. He said yesterday that he was specifically asked not to mention Jesus in his prayer, a government intrusion that he said threatens his First Amendment rights.”

Perfecting Citizens the Stasi Way
PacificFreePress.com; July 11, 2010“In a sign that illegal surveillance programs launched by the Bush administration are accelerating under President Obama, The Wall Street Journal revealed last week that a National Security Agency (NSA) program, PERFECT CITIZEN, is under development. With a cover story that this is merely a ‘research’ effort meant to ‘detect cyber assaults on private companies and government agencies running such critical infrastructure as the electricity grid and nuclear-power plants,’ it is also clear that the next phase in pervasive government spying is underway.”

Government Shouldn’t Take Choice Off The Table
Hartford Courant; July 11, 2010“It used to be that the question of whether your butt is too big was between you, your bathroom mirror and your significant other. Now, some say government has an interest in how snugly your jeans fit.”

Government Intrusion Slows Recovery
North Bay Business Journal (Calif.); July 11, 2010“The federal government has made significant incursions into running banking, autos, health care and insurance and has snatched up the entire student loan industry from private hands.”

Could NYC Be Next To Ban Pets From Pet Stores?
Gothamist.com; July 10, 2010“Though New York pet shop owners are worried, citywide rescue groups are supporting the ban. Peter McKosky of New York’s Empty Cages Collective said, ‘We deal every day with the fact that people treat animals like disposable commodities and the pet trade just feeds into that.'”

Is the End of Photo Radar a Good Thing or a Bad Thing?Heck Yea, It’s Bad!
ABC15.com (Ariz.); July 10, 2010Local ABC affiliate asks readers to chime-in on the pros and cons of a nanny state traffic camera law about to expire in Arizona on July 15. Be sure to give ’em a piece of your mind!

Tiahrt: More Government is Not the Answer
Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.); July 8, 2010“More government is not the answer. Big Government is the reason our economy has not recovered. Despite President Obama’s ‘recovery summer’ campaign to sell his failed ‘stimulus’ plan, American families and small businesses here in Kansas do not want more government intrusion in their daily lives. The Kansans I have talked with all across the state are screaming for the government to get out of their way and out of their wallets.”

Organic Eggs: More Expensive, but No Healthier
TIME.com; July 8, 2010Go ahead, spend more on those organic eggs because you’ve been conned by the green fringe into thinking they’re healthier. More ‘conventional’ eggs for the rest of us, and some beer money to boot!

Having just banned sugar-sweetened beverages on city property, promoted an official “pot brownie” recipe, and currently working on a bill to ban toys in kids’ Happy Meals, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors is now proposing criminal charges to be brought against anyone caught selling pets other than fish.

“If [San Francisco’s Commission of Animal Control and Welfare] approves the ordinance at its meeting tonight, San Francisco could soon have what is believed to be the country’s first ban on the sale of all pets except fish,” the San Francisco Chronicle reported today. “That includes dogs, cats, hamsters, mice, rats, chinchillas, guinea pigs, birds, snakes, lizards and nearly every other critter, or, as the commission calls them, companion animals.”

Everything is being banned in San Francisco except the ridiculous efforts of nanny state bureaucrats to dictate how citizens live their own lives independent of unnecessary government intrusion. Join the Nanny State Liberation Front on Facebook if you’ve had enough of big government butting its nose in places it doesn’t belong.